Nutritional deficiencies occurring in adults are many and vary according to geographic setting and socioeconomic status of the individual. Adults over 50 years of age are at risk of undernutrition (defined as hyponutrition or deficient nutrition) due to physical, cognitive or functional decline. Nutritionists speculate that depression, memory loss, and debility in some cases may result from undernutrition. Chronic diseases such as Alzheimer's, arthritis, or osteoporosis can also interfere with meal preparation and eating habits. Often times, adults over 50 physically are unable to prepare their own meals and then choose to skip the meal altogether.
Even when health status is not a factor, adults over 50 living alone may not bother preparing balanced and nutritious meals for themselves. As an alternative, many may subsist instead on processed, ready-to-eat foods. Economic restraints also affect food choice and nutrient intake. Many adults 50 years and older are on a limited income and therefore, economic considerations as well as lack of nutrition knowledge and health education among adults 50 years and older compounds the problem. Inactivity or illness can further depress the appetite, as can a loss of taste; older people who eat alone or who are depressed can also lose interest in food. Appetite loss may also be caused by dental problems (including poorly fitting dentures, poor dentition, and gum disease), lack of exercise or a diminished sense of smell and taste.
Even adults over 50 who are in perfect health without any disease or other complicating factors cited above can suffer from nutritional deficiencies due to physiological changes that effect the absorption of vitamins, minerals and other macro- and micronutrients. The greatest change in gastrointestinal physiology affecting nutrient bioavailability that has been identified with advancing age is atrophic gastritis, which occurs in a considerable percentage of the adults over 50.
Dietary manipulation is useful to enhance the needed intestinal absorption with ageing populations. Although nutritional supplements for adults over 50 are commercially available, the amounts of nutrients contained in the supplements are generally arbitrary and lack a scientific or experimental basis. Vitamin and mineral preparations are commonly administered as general nutritional supplements, focused upon “completeness” providing one of each vitamin and/or mineral and are not specifically formulated to address specific dietary and nutritional needs based upon individual lifestyles, particularly in a population over 50 years of age.
Micronutrients are elements or compounds which are present in foods in small or trace amounts and includes vitamins, minerals, or other elements and compounds found in foods for which many have not yet qualified for a recommended daily allowance (RDA). The macronutrients consist of carbohydrates, fats, and proteins that supply nutrients and calories and mostly are consumed via food and dietary intake. Some micronutrients such as calcium, sodium, potassium, chloride, and phosphorus are consumed in relatively large amounts, while many others such as iron, iodine, and zinc are consumed in small amounts. Vitamins, such as B12 and folic acid, and minerals such as selenium, are consumed in very small or trace amounts. In as much as the human body does not synthesize many compounds which are essential to the human body, these specific vitamins and minerals can be obtained from only two sources: food and supplements.
The primary source of all nutrients is food. However, the majority of adults over 50 however do not meet the RDA of essential micronutrients through food consumption. Thus, vitamin and mineral supplementation has become a recognized method of meeting accepted medical and health standards.
In an effort to combat these sub-optimal vitamin levels, there have been a variety of nutritional supplements made available to the public. Very typically, these vitamin and mineral supplement formulations are developed so that each dietary ingredient is at one hundred percent (100%) of the RDA without any focus upon key ingredients or supplementation to deliver specific consumer benefits, particularly taking into account physiological factors as people age.
In the alternative, some people and vitamin products take nutritional supplementation to the extreme through megadose vitamin therapy. Megadose vitamin therapy is the use of vitamins in amounts considerably greater than the RDA, often at excessive levels of 200%, 300% etc. However, megadoses of vitamins and/or minerals can have harmful effects, especially in a population who is over 50 years of age. It is appreciated by those skilled in the art that administration of very large doses of certain vitamins, for example vitamins A, C, D and B6 can lead to vitamin toxicity and other serious health consequences. Vitamin toxicity is a condition in which a person develops symptoms as side effects from taking massive doses of vitamins. Vitamin toxicity, which is also called hypervitaminosis or vitamin poisoning, is becoming more common in developed countries because of the popularity of vitamin supplements. Vitamins vary in the amounts that are required to cause toxicity and in the specific symptoms that result.
Therefore, the inventors wanted to provide formulations that are specifically formulated to improve and/or enhance vitality, immunity, eye and bone health, while addressing vitamin and nutrient deficiencies as well as physiological changes in adults over 50 years of age without the negative side effects of a megadose nutritional supplement. The nutritional supplements of the present invention are balanced formulas that address specific indications without using megadose vitamin therapy.
Therefore, there exists a need for a nutritional supplement for adults over 50 years of age that supplies the right amount of the right micronutrients to assure adequate intake needed for disease prevention and protection against nutritional losses and deficiencies due to lifestyle, age, disease and inadequate dietary patterns.